SIXTY HOURS IN HOSPITAL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 151, 15 May 1942, Page 18

SIXTY HOURS IN HOSPITAL

Impressions Of A Voluntary Aid

F you are a member of the Red ] Cross Auxiliary or the St. John Ambulance Division and have reached the required standard of training in home nursing and first aid, you may be called upon to spend sixty hours in a public hospital and emerge a fully-

qualified Voluntary Aid. Once the sixty hours’ training is completed, the services of the voluntary aid are used in wider fields, and she may be called upon to give service at any time. It is natural that in these times many young women are anxious to complete their training. and each week large numbers of New Zealand girls present themselves in their

4 new uniforms at our public hospitals, and each week emerge with further experience, potential assets in a national emergency. Hard On Your Feet It’s strenuous, sixty hours in hospital, even for volunteers who are used to hard work, "It’s your feet" is the usual comment. For hospital work is admittedly chard on the feet, and sixty hours is perhaps not quite long enough to develop much fatigue resistance. But it is enough to learn something about hospital routine, according to a friend of mine who has recently completed her hospital training. "We learnt something of everything in those sixty hours," she explained. "We toured the hospital, getting some idea of the running and general organisation. Then we were shown how to do things, and afterwards did them, things like sponging patients, bed-making, the serving of meals, and the preparing of dressings. "We reported at the hospital every morning at nine o’clock. We would begin by cleaning the wards. Hospital cleaning is, of course, very thorough. Each day all the woodwork is wiped with a damp cloth, lockers, window sills, beds, and skirting boards. And each day the floors are thoroughly swept and cleaned. After that there are things like sponging and bedymaking to be done. You're on your feet all day. I know that when I got home the first night I was almost too stiff to go to sleep. It’s hard work even for those who think they’re used to hard work, You see, you're rushing round almost continuously from nine to five, and until you get used to it your feet hurt. Even lunch-time doesn’t give you much chance to relax, since V.A.’s eat at the Nurses’ Home, and that usually is some distance away. The first day most of us made the usual dinner-table conversation and were rather surprised when suddenly the bell rang and all the nurses rose. We marched back to duty, casting lingering looks behind at our scarcely touched meal. The next lunch-time we didn’t talk. Use Your Own Initiative "What was the attitude of the regular staff to the V.A.’s?" " Actually we didn’t see much of the furses. We were in the charge of a supervising sister, and she, I remember, did all she could to help us. She knows you how to do everything at the beginning of the course, and after that you're expected to use your own initiative. If in difficulties of course you consult the sister." "And did the patients like having V.A.’s in the wards?" "Yes, I think so. And I became ‘so attached to my particular patients that at the end of my sixty hours I hated leaving them. You get to know quite a lot about them even in a week, because most of the patients like to pour their "stories into the sympathetic ears of a ‘new listener." : (Continued on next page) _

(Continued from previous page) "Don’t you think you’d get very hardened to that sort of thing after a month or so of nursing?" "Not necessarily. You can’t be a good nurse without sympathy. And sympathy doesn’t interfere with your work because you're kept too busy to let it. "One thing even a V.A. notices, however, is the difference between the men’s and women’s wards. The men are always jollier, and much more ready to exchange bright back-chat with the nurse. But probably if you had male nurses in the women’s wards you'd find the women patients perking up considerably." "Did you have to do any theatre work?" " No, the nearest I got to it was watching a blood transfusion, and even then I saw grey speckles whirling in front of my eyes. If you faint in the theatre, you know, nobody rushes to pick you up, you just have to revive yourself as best you can. The patient’s the important thing." Value of the Training "After your sixty hours’ experience would you be inclined to take up nursing as a career?" "Yes, It’s amazing the way nursing gets you. I’ve never 'been able to under- stand before why so many people went in for a job which entails so much hard work and so little material reward. But I hated leaving, even though I felt that physically I had had enough." "And what use is made of the training afterwards?" : "Every time a hospital ship comes in we go on duty at the clearing station. Many of us go to the General Hospital to help on week-ends. V.A.’s form part of the staff of military hospitals here and overseas, and are permanent helpers in military wards of ordinary general hospitals. And those of us who have no permanent hospital duties are attached to the Red Cross or St. John Ambulance Emergency List, and are ready to man first aid posts or give assistance in a national emergency."

M.

B.